


Divine Intervention

by ExecutiveEspressoDepresso



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Angst, Cancer, Heavy Angst, M/M, Post-Fall (Hannibal)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:34:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29503485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExecutiveEspressoDepresso/pseuds/ExecutiveEspressoDepresso
Summary: Hannibal has been hiding a secret from Will. Divine intervention is bringing them down
Relationships: Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	Divine Intervention

“Don’t fucking touch me, Hannibal.”

The shouted words felt like a whip to Hannibal’s skin, burning his flesh in the same way the Verger brand had. This was worse, however. This was Will. Pain, pain Hannibal could manage. But not this. Never this.

The older man swallowed and complied with his lover’s wishes. A step back and the hand formerly outstretched in an attempt to soothe, clenching into a fist to fall at the man’s side.

Hannibal tried to work his throat to formulate words, an apology maybe, perhaps a plea, but nothing came of it. He could only watch as Will, his beloved blue eyed god, kept his back turned to him.

The muscles under Will’s dark blue shirt visibly tensed as he straightened from his hunched posture. The doctor swallowed again, not sure what his always unpredictable lover would do.

Will’s voice was soft and even, but the simmering of rage was undeniable underneath the faux calm. “How long?”

Hannibal’s mouth was dry as he opened his lips to whisper offered words that only made the tension within the room more opaque. 

“Four months.”

A mirthless chuckle, that descended into somewhat maniacal and disbelieving laughter, resounded from the brown haired man and made Hannibal’s heart seize in his chest.

Hannibal clenched his hands and opened them again mechanically. Their world was falling apart around them, and Hannibal had to stay grounded enough for the both of them. He had to make sure there was enough foundation left for them to rebuild after Will burned it all to the ground

“Wow,” Will gasped through his laughter and the brokenness of the sound was heartbreaking. The man put his hand on the wall before collapsing almost entirely against it, forehead pressing against the cold plaster. “Four months?” His head turned and Hannibal could see that the smile slashed cruelly across Will’s beautiful features was marred with streaked tears.

“Four months,” Will said again, the blue eye visible to Hannibal gleamed with lunacy despite the saltwater gathering and spilling over the thick dark lashes. “Were you ever going to tell me? Four months you spent lying to me, smiling, pretending nothing was wrong? How _could_ you?” His voice was raising in hysteria and yet cracking with emotion that wrecked through Hannibal with the ferocity of a splitting sea.

“Will,” Hannibal tried softly, tentatively reaching out a hand to his husband. “Please.”

“Shut up, Hannibal!”

The distraught scream echoed through the chapel walls of their shared mind palace as much as it did through the plastered walls of the house. Reverberating, unsaid sobs barely contained within the quivering vibratum of the words made Hannibal fall quiet again as if he had no choice but to obey.

The endless blue of Will’s eyes were denied to Hannibal as his lashes slid closed, the other man’s whole body shivering as he slid down the wall, barely turning so his side was pressed against the surface instead of his back. 

Will’s position resembled that of a Greek statue still, even in this calamitous moment. Spine curved in a twisted arch with one knee pulled to his chest, like a mourning marble figure, one hand held to his face and the other with fingers buried into the carpet until his fingers turned white. Brown curls and the turn of his head obscured Will’s face from Hannibal’s view, but he could still silently watch the steady _drip drip drip_ of tears splash to the floor.

Hannibal kneeled several feet before Will, eyes trained on Will’s hand clenched in the shag carpet. Despite the burning pain and desire to do so in his heart, Hannibal wasn’t cretinous enough to attempt touching Will again. 

The silence trickled with Will’s silent tears. Hannibal could see it was taking everything in his husband not to wail or perhaps pound his fists against the wall. And there was nothing Hannibal could do to placate him, not this time. He couldn’t pull him into an embrace and brush his fingers through Will’s brown locks while holding him close to murmur in his ear that everything would be alright.

It wouldn’t be alright. 

Divine intervention was bringing them down and neither of them could do anything about it.

A wet shuddering gasp was pulled from his beloved’s lips. With a resigned heave, Will pressed himself back against the wall, lips pursed. His head tilted back with a heavy swallow, whole body going limp with exhaustion from the effort it took to sob so grievously. The redness of his cheeks and curls plastered to his forehead only furthering his appearance of a weeping nymph.

Hannibal patiently waited as Will regained his even breathing, lowering his beautiful blue eyes still wet with tears to meet his husband’s clear maroon stare.

Hannibal would not cry. There was no need to mourn when the death was your own.

“How long?,” Will whispered, ocean blue eyes open wide, begging for time, more time. All the time in the world.

Oh, the killer would have slaughtered millions for that to be. Sacrificed everything he owned to tell Will they had eternity to spend with each other. But only a quiet, “six months,” escaped from his lips. 

Hannibal thought Will was going to hit him when he surged forward with his hand raised and eyes blazing. Maybe even beat him given the intensity of Will’s azure inferos. 

The man almost wished he would. He would take a thousand blows, if it would ease the pain Will was feeling by even an infinitesimal amount. Hannibal would’ve bled himself dry with a smile on his face if it meant Will wouldn’t have to saddle this suffering.

But the man halted his attack, hand raised in a fist and body tensely strung like an archer's bow. A shudder wracked through his body and he collapsed into Hannibal’s chest, assaulting hand falling to his husband’s shoulder to tightly grasp like he had so long ago.

Hannibal held Will like it was the last thing he would ever do. And it would be, when the time came. Hands buried in Will’s curls and pressed against his lower back, Hannibal held on like Will was the one dying between them.

The touch wasn’t comforting like it so often was. The contact was desperate, as if either man would disappear forever if they didn’t hold on tight enough. They were at sea once again, bathed in blood spilt together and bobbing through churning black waves of icy water. Nothing but each other. Only their love to keep them warm and alive, together and free.

But love couldn’t keep cancer at bay with the same fury it ignited a desire to live.

Fingers carded through soft brown locks, tender and delicate. “I don’t regret anything,” Hannibal rumbled, voice catching in his throat bundled with a sudden lump of heavy emotion. Perhaps he would shed tears, not for himself, but for Will. What he was putting Will through, leaving him, Will deserved more than that. “Not a single moment, action. Nothing.” Hannibal firmly pressed his lips to Will’s forehead in a loving kiss with his eyes squeezed firmly shut, trying to pour all of his love and adoration into the singular action. 

It would never come close. Hannibal’s love for Will would never be emptied, not when the sun burned out nor the last star in the galaxy exploding into darkness. His altruism would remain long after he was gone, in the way Will saw the world with his everlasting crystal blues, the curve of his pink lipped smile and his mousy ringlets that shook when he laughed with a harmonious lilt no composition Hannibal wrote would ever come close to matching in musicality. Hannibal’s adoration would stay embedded in every facet of who Will was, down to his very soul. Divine intervention may bring them down, but it could never so much as dim Hannibal’s devotion.

Will pressed tighter into Hannibal’s hold, more tears soaking into Hannibal’s white sweater. “You’re not allowed to leave me Hannibal,” Will mumbled into Hannibal’s shoulder, curling in his arms and pushing his face into Hannibal’s neck, seemingly not feeling close enough to his husband still. 

Hannibal’s heart cracked at the desperation in Will’s tone. He’d only heard it once before, when Will was begging for the truth Hannibal refused to give him because his beloved’s ignorance suited Hannibal’s own selfish needs.

Hannibal had sworn he would never hide the truth from Will ever again. Yet, once he’d smelt the stomach cancer when he laid in the morning light with Will sleeping on his chest, golden in the sun’s glow, the thought to tell him never even seemed a genuine consideration. It would break their world of easy touch, thrusting them into buried anxiety and unshed tears. As hard as it was for Hannibal to lie, the thought of forcing Will to imagine a world without Hannibal at his side was far worse than any amount of guilt at hiding his sickness.

He’d been very careful with the medicine too. The only reason Will had found the bag and IV in one of his many suitcases was Hannibal’s own fault. He should have just offered to search for Will’s backup faux ID himself; they were not in danger of being found in any capacity, but Will was a habitual worrier and liked to ensure all of their escape plans were in place should the motion to follow them ever be needed. But Hannibal had been distracted by Will snatching Hannibal’s reading glasses off the man’s face in a jest when the man got out of their bed. It was Hannibal’s mistake for assuming Will would only check his own bags.

Now here they were. Exactly where Hannibal never wanted them to be.

“I will be with you until the end, mylimasis,” Hannibal whispered into Will’s hair. He inhaled quietly, a single tear rolling down his face. Never for him, only for his lover. “Until the very end.”

Will fell silent, pushing even tighter to Hannibal’s chest. Barely an inch of skin between them was left untouched by the other. The lines had blurred long ago until they were one. No one had ever been understood with the same completion or loved so profoundly as they had, and it was doubtful anyone ever would. But they were still only mortal.

Hannibal allowed himself to inhale the scent of Will like he had so many times before. He had been using Hannibal’s shampoo, and the thought brought a faint smile to Hannibal’s face with a second tear rolling down his cheek. The peach and coconut combination was overpowered with the smell of dog and a distinctly pine scent, unmistakably and utterly _Will_. The salt and dampness of Will’s tears were prominent in Hannibal’s nose.

Will’s fingers tightened their grasp on Hannibal’s shoulder, the cashmere fabric bunching underneath his grip.

“The very end,” Will repeated quietly. The tears had stopped streaming, but the heavy exhausted weight of Will’s words were just as crushing. “Together.”

Hannibal pushed his fingers through Will’s hair once again and held fast, keeping Will’s face in Hannibal’s neck. He closed his eyes, resting his cheek upon Will’s head with a soft exhale. 

“Sickness and death will never deter my love,” Hannibal softly declared but with as much finality if he shouted it from the rooftops. “To the very end, we’ll stay together. If you will have me.”

“My love is not conditional, Hannibal,” Will spoke with the same amount of clarity, voice unwavering for the first time in at least a half hour. “If it was, you would have lost it long ago.”

A watery laugh escaped from Hannibal’s mouth, smiling against Will’s hair. He felt the man’s lips upturn minutely against the bronze skin of Hannibal’s neck. “Of course, Will. I would not have it any other way.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just a sad angsty thing I started on Valentine’s Day on a whim and made myself cry with. Sorry everyone.


End file.
